After a delay due to uncooperative weather, the 54th annual Daytona 500 went underway on Monday, February 27th. The infamous NASCAR race, which is known as both “the Great American Race” and “the Super Bowl of NASCAR racing”, proved to be one for the history books, as the first ever Daytona 500 race postponed for a Monday, and for the events that followed during the race.
43 drivers, led by pole leader Carl Edwards, prepared to race the 200 lap race, all with their eyes on the prize of the prestigious title of “Winner of the Daytona 500”, and all prepared for the excitement that was sure to ensue. And the start did not disappoint; just at the start of Lap 2, a major crash occurred near the Start/Finish line, involving Jimmie Johnson (48), Kurt Busch (51), Danica Patrick (10), Trevor Bayne (21) and David Ragan (34). The crash damaged all the cars, but all were able to restart the race as soon as repairs were made, except Jimmie Johnson, whose car was completely totaled, causing a disappointingly quick end to the driver’s Daytona 500 attempt.
It was not long before the race was slowed down again, with the second caution occurring during lap 12, due to Ryan Newman’s (39) car spinning out.
The 500 continued on smoothly for quite awhile, until lap 81, when Jeff Gordon’s (24) engine blew. Gordon quickly realized what had happened, and demonstrated good sportsmanship among his opponents, waving away the cars behind him to prevent any damage to the other cars. Gordon’s blown engine left him unable to rejoin the race, leaving half of the Hendricks team out of the race before the half. Another caution occurred just seven laps later, when Marcos Ambrose (9) turned Terry Labonte’s C&J Energy Services Ford (32). The fifth caution was caused during lap 128, when Clint Boyer (15) ran out of gas and could not make it back around the track to Pit Road.
This season, the Daytona 500 upped the traditional money reward to the halfway leader, likely as a motivation for the drivers to keep doing their best during the entire race. At lap 250, the new prize of $200,000 was awarded to leader at the time Martin Truex Jr. (56).
Nearing the end of the 500, the cautions started happening one after another. During lap 156, David Stremme’s (30) car started slowing down and could not make it back to Pit Road, causing another caution. While they were still out on a caution, Juan Pablo Montoya (42) tried gaining back his laps out on the track; while making his way around Turn 3, an unidentified rear car part underneath his Target Chevrolet broke, causing him to waver and crash into one of the trucks that dry the racetrack, which carry 200 gallons of jet fuel, causing the fuel to ignite; thus creating a massive explosion on the track. The crash left the truck banged up and scorched near the back, and completely destroyed Montoya’s car, however both the truck driver and Montoya made it out safely. Since there was so much thick jet fuel coating Turn 3, and with stubborn flames burning, the explosion caused a Red Flag to wave, indicating that all cars must come to a complete stop on the track.
After cleaning, drying and repairing the scorched parts of the track as quickly as possible to avoid the rain that was headed towards Daytona, Florida, the race picked back up after a two-hour delay with 34 laps to go. It went on smoothly for a bit until lap 77, when Casey Mears (13) bumped Alric Almirola (43), who in turn, spun out Marcos Ambrose (9), causing a small wreck. Ten laps later, a bigger crash ensued when Jamie McMurray (1) got loose, spun out, and hit many of the cars coming up from behind him. Those involved included Carl Edwards (99), Joey Logano (20), Brad Kaselowski (2), Kasey Khane (5), Tony Stewart (14), and Legan Smith (78). Stewart was the only one steered clear of most of the wreck, leaving the rest of the bunch with most of the car damage.
With only four laps left to go Logano (20) and Ricky Stenhouse (6) made contact, causing a wreck that involved David Reutimann (93) Kyle Busch (18), Tony Stewart (14), and Dave Blaney (36). Most were cleared after the incident.
Because of how close the crash was to the end of the race, a green-white-checkered ending was called. The top three were all close together, with Matt Kenseth (17) and Greg Biffle (16) battling it out for the win, while Dale Earnhardt, Jr.(88) started coming up close behind. During the last lap, Dale Jr. was able to pass Biffle, taking second, but not quite making it past Kenseth, who ended up taking the Daytona 500.
This race will go down in the history books as something that has never happened before, and Kenseth is sure to be proud to tag along as the winner of the record-breaker.